ABSTRACT
Functional analysis of activity describes activity in relation to the context in which it occurs. It shows how activity is developed in a particular context based on the mechanisms of self-regulation. Situated aspects of human performance are also described in Suchman’s (1987) “situated concept of action.” According to this concept, purposeful actions are inevitably situated actions occurring in the context of particular circumstances. In contrast to traditional cognitive psychology, where purposeful actions are determined by plans, in the situated action concept, actions while systemic, are never planned (Suchman, 1987). She did not describe precisely what action is in her theoretical concept and how it differs from the term “action” in activity theory. Hence, we will not go into a deep discussion of this term in her work. However, we can only infer that action in Suchman’s work can be understood as purposeful behavior involved in task performance and that it includes cognitive components. Action in Suchman’s concept with some approximation can be considered to be similar to the term “activity” during task performance in activity theory. This approximation is required for comparison of the relationship between stable and situated components of human performance in situated action concept and in the systemic-structural theory of activity. According to Suchman, cognitive science overemphasizes the importance of the plan and considers it a major mechanism that guides actions. According to functional analysis of activity, a plan is only one possible mechanism of actions and activity regulation.
